Fitness People

The 7 Trainers You Should Know About

4. Anthony Mychal

I decided I needed to put Anthony on this list as soon as possible, because he may not be an up-and-comerfor long.

My first introduction to Mr. Mychal (pronounced “Michael”) was a T-Nation article, which laid out some incredibly well-thought-out ideas for including single-arm floor presses for the purposes of building a bigger upper chest. That being a weakness of mine, it caught my eye. Since then, Anthony has been published on T-Nation several times, as well Greatist and a number of other sites.

We finally got to meet this March, in Columbus, Ohio, where we were both attending the Arnold Classic (note: he wrote about this here). I spent the entire weekend with Anthony and his girlfriend, talking about everything from training and injury recovery to business and football. Being from Pittsburgh, he’s a Steelers fan, but I have forgiven him for that.

He’s a great guy with great ideas about injury rehab and prevention, and tons of stuff about training for every goal. In addition, he’s got some keen insights on nutrition; he recently ran an experiment where he ate anything (and everything) he wanted for 10 days, gaining and losing 21.4 pounds. In fact, he also wrote a guest post on cheat days for me, which I’ll publish shortly.

Finally, Anthony’s interest in fitness extends beyond aesthetics and fully encompasses athletic performance — including his own. He does something called “tricking,” which basically consists of flipping and other gymnastic moves. (Think parkour with less running.)

Here’s a video of Mr. Mychal doing a backflip:

5. Ben Bruno

Another T-Nation writer, Ben Bruno probably doesn’t belong on a list of up-and-comers, since he’s pretty well-known; nevertheless, he’s a guy that you need to know about. Big Ben and I first met in NYC at the PEAK Performance seminar in June of 2011. Three weeks later, I was walking home from a training session and literally bumped into Ben on Seventh Ave, despite the fact that he lives more than 300 miles away in Boston. He was down for a visit, and, thankfully, we’re both very sturdy, so no one was harmed in the collision.

New York City, by the way, is no foreign land for Bruno — he spent four years living here as he completed his undergrad coursework at Columbia University. Where he graduated with honors. So to say Ben is a smart guy is probably an understatement. To say he is as smart as he is strong is probably more fitting, because this guy is a straight up beast.

Over the last year or so, Ben has become known for his innovative variations of exercises, which often include combining movements (like a hip extension and a row), or using equipment like landmines and Valslides. Originally, he came up with these movements as a way to stay strong while recovering from surgery, but now they are used the world over by people who are either looking for something new or who want to be able to load heavy weight without a lot of issue.

Here’s a clip of Ben killing 12 reps with 285 on a deadlift variation (note the RFS T-shirt):

Clearly, even when filming demos, Ben doesn’t pull his punches when it comes to weight. He’s also a hilarious guy, and because of that, we’ve become great friends, often traveling together and crashing on each other's couches whenever possible. Check out Ben’s site, and follow him on Twitter.